Friday, 23 April 2010

Earlier in the week I guest supplemented/posted at Eurasian Sensation on being vegan in Malaysia, as part of Chris' Eating Vegetarian in Malaysia post.

Writing my piece for this was a bit of a challenge - I just spent a lot of time thinking about how I love the food when I go up there, and not so much the practical aspects of being vegan. It's nothing exciting, really - I spend a lot of time in temples and associated restaurants, I get recommendations from family members, I speak a few useful languages and dialects - and these are not necessarily useful pieces of advice to give to people looking to tourist. But oh, how I love the food I eat when I am up there. The endless plates of noodles and the old favourites that I have always loved. My parents are heading up there next week (as part of a cruise - they sleep at night as the ship cruises around SEAsia, and in the morning they wander off the boat and visit whichever friends or family are in the area. I am jealous!), and all I can think about is the things they eat.

Visiting the Mission made me think quite a lot about our industrial farming complex, and the pressures we place on so many systems. Not like I don't already think about these things a lot! I met some sheep, and some goats, and some cows, and a horse, and some ducks and chickens and pigs. The cows were huge! And so were the pigs! Growing up in the suburbs, I'd never before met many farm animals, so that was exciting. But it's sad to hear how they got there, the dog who was going to be shot because she wasn't efficient enough, the goat who was going to be killed because he was too friendly (and it was becoming dangerous) - but this goat was too friendly because his owners had encouraged it when he was tiny, so we can think of it, really, as a result of human intervention, and not his own fault, that he behaved that way. And we (we as a human whole) should be taking responsibility for that, they way this stuff is, effectively, our fault. My personal refusal to interact with the industrial animal agricultural complex aside, I still think we have a responsibility to them, to treat animals well and not carelessly cast them aside.

waiting for travel noms

About Me

I'm an Australian (Chinese + Anglo) member of Generation Y, by way of Malaysia. I lived in Perth for a while, and now call Melbourne home.

No Award is where I write about media, pop culture, and social justice from a not USAmerican POV, along with my friend Liz.
I am passionate about a hundred different things, and I use vegan about town to reconcile my ethnicity and my food obsession with being vegan.